When Alvarez, who is homeless, found the envelope with a check inside worth thousands, all he could think about was finding Roberta Hoskie, the person whose name was on it.

“I was just thinking about how that person was feeling by losing an amount of a check like that, an amount of money like that,” Alvarez told WTNH. “I’d be feeling kind of desperate.”

With help from a friend, Alvarez called the phone number on the check. Hoskie, a single mother who was once homeless herself, was grateful to get the money back. To say thanks, she wrote Alvarez a check as a reward and is helping him get an education and an apartment of his own.